How seriously should a programmer take a 'star performer' award? [closed]

Question

I work at a medium sized software corp. in India (abt 6,500 employees). This company has a star performer policy; basically they select a person from each "grade" every quarter and give her the award(some gift vouchers and a trophy). Well, not that I am jealous ... but a colleague just got the award and I sort of feel left out. I cant seem to get over the fact that I didn't get it.

Do these awards actually provide any benefit to a Programmers career?

Do other programmers think more highly of programmers who have won these awards?

Answer 1

Not seriously at all

It's a game the company want you to play. Don't play it.

You'll go insane if you start working for those rewards, also don't try to measure yourself against your colleagues, it's another sure fire way to lose your reason.

The only developer you should try to better than is the developer you were yesterday.

Definitely use others as inspiration for where you want your skills to go, but don't measure yourself against them, it's unfair to both parties.

Answer 2

A star performer award? Sorry to break it, but sounds like crap to me. Only bad things can come out of it. Working is not like a competition! What if your own work is not acknowledged? A common problem when working at a large sized corp.

A star performer award can only create jealousy among the devs at your corp, which in itself short-term might be good, since devs like you might actually want to get that award. Long term I think there are better ways to highlight eye-catching performances.

I'd say go on with your work, always improve and you'll be fine, whether with or without a star performer award.

Answer 3

The only "star performer" reward that really means anything to me is the one where my manager calls me into a closed-door session to tell me that I'm being promoted or given a raise. Small gift cards and public "recognition" don't really do much more than sow dissent within a local development shop.

Answer 4

Award incentives for increased productivity don't work on programmers.

Watch this video on the real incentives that drive programmers.

These awards are to help recognize people in the company for doing a great job, but they are MOSTLY to motivate everyone to do more and better work to earn that award. At the end of the day, a manager paying $25 for a gift certificate and $15 for a trophy is a small price to pay for everyone in their department doing a 5% better job than they would otherwise. In Economics that's called incentives - and it works, but studies show it only works for non-cognitive tasks.

Programmers are actually motivated by autonomy and a sense of purpose.

On the positive side, it still is something you can put on your resume if you get it!

Answer 5

I don't think you should worry about it too much. Honestly, the award's name sounds more like it's been made up by a member of the administration than a member of your own IT team. Personally, I value professional praise by my co-workers more than certificates or titles. I wouldn't dare to judge the performance of a co-worker form a different field either.

Answer 6

It's always nice to receive awards. I tend to take them with a grain of salt because I am more concerned about improving than I am looking at what I've done.

As far as interviewing, hiring...to me those types of things are nothing more than a blip on a resume I look at after looking at the work history. If you come in on the interview and do well it matters none really. They just might help you get your foot in for the interview before someone without them (given equal experience) but, that is about it. Even at that they are factored in very little.